FCC Green Lights TETRA for Limited Use in U.S

The FCC granted partial approval of a waiver request that will allow products conforming to the TETRA communications standard to be available in the United States for business, industrial and transport sectors. The technology is not approved for use in the U.S. public-safety spectrum bands.

Matthew Nodine, chief of staff for the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, said the order allows some use of TETRA equipment. Permanent use of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard will be considered in a rulemaking proceeding, he said.

“We therefore limit operation of TETRA equipment pursuant to this waiver to industrial/business pool frequencies in the 450 - 470 MHz band, and ESMR frequencies in the 800 MHz band,” the order said. “In addition, to address concerns about near-far interference, this waiver does not authorize use of TETRA equipment on the 800 MHz band channels on which our rules prohibit operation of high-density cellular systems. The issues of TETRA use in the public-safety bands and with cellular-like architecture will be addressed in the rulemaking proceeding.”

"We applaud the FCC's decision to allow the use of existing, internationally accepted TETRA technology in North America," said William R. Moroney, president and CEO of the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC). "It's an opportunity that is long overdue."

The waiver covers equipment operating in the 450 - 470 MHz and 817 -824/862 - 869 MHz bands. Some TETRA equipment has already been FCC type approved and it will not need to be re-authorized, the order said. “For currently certificated TETRA devices that can be modified to operate with a higher transmitter output power by software upgrade without any hardware change, we waive our equipment authorization rules to permit the modification to be treated as a Class II permissive change,” the order said.

TETRA technology operates in 25-kilohertz channels but offers 6.25-kilohertz efficiency by providing four voice channels in a 25-kilohertz carrier. The FCC made reference to TETRA as one option to meet the VHF and UHF narrowbanding requirements. “Because TETRA equipment operates with the required efficiency, we believe it is in the public interest to authorize this option [TETRA] for licensees that are subject to these narrowbanding deadlines,” said the FCC order. TETRA equipment is not currently available in VHF bands.

“Choice brings healthy competition, drives innovation and ensures competitive pricing,” TETRA Association CEO Phil Kidner said. “Members of the TETRA Association are ready to ensure that U.S. users have the opportunity to enjoy these benefits.

“The Association is grateful to PowerTrunk and Sepura for providing the technical advice and information to assist the FCC in its consideration of our waiver application. We would also like to thank RCC Consultants for providing their expertise and knowledge of the U.S. market and its procedures.”

Under the rulemaking, the commission is seeking comment on proposed technical rules that would enable digital technologies such as TETRA to operate without causing interference to existing systems. The FCC also requested comment on how the deployment of TETRA technology may affect public-safety interoperability.

The FCC asked for comment on interference protection, authorized bandwidth, the emission mask, and whether TETRA should have the same definition of “high-density cellular system” applicable to ESMR systems in the FCC’s Part 90 Rules.

The FCC also sought comment on whether any rule changes other than those set forth in the order are necessary to permit the certification and use of TETRA equipment. The commission asked whether use of TETRA technology should be permitted on public-safety pool frequencies. Comment regarding interoperability between different system architectures, including Project 25 (P25) systems, was requested.

The TETRA Association first filed the waiver request in 2009, and the FCC received initial comments on the waiver request in 2010.

The latest round of comments are due 45 days after publication in the Federal Register; reply comments are due 60 days after Federal Register publication

Source: www.missioncriticalmag.com